The Los Angeles Dodgers, criticized for failing to comment on the US government’s immigration crackdown, on Friday committed $1 million toward assistance for families of immigrants “impacted by recent events in the region.”The reigning World Series champions have faced criticism for their response to an escalation in federal immigration sweeps that have targeted migrant workers in garment factories, car washes and other workplaces.Los Angeles has become ground zero of President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement across the United States and the Dodgers have a heavily Latino fan base, with some claiming a sense of betrayal over the franchise’s failure to speak out against the ongoing raids.”What’s happening in Los Angeles has reverberated among thousands upon thousands of people, and we have heard the calls for us to take a leading role on behalf of those affected,” Dodgers president Stan Kasten said in a statement.”We believe that by committing resources and taking action, we will continue to support and uplift the communities of Greater Los Angeles.”The Dodgers said the funds would be used for “direct financial assistance” for the families.They added that in the coming days the team planned additional announcements with local community and labor organizations that are directly supporting youth and families with food insecurity, basic essentials and mental health services.Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass welcomed the Dodgers’ involvement.“I want to thank the Dodgers for leading with this action to support the immigrant community of Los Angeles,” Bass said in a statement.”These last weeks have sent shockwaves of fear rippling through every neighborhood and have had a direct impact on our economy,” she said. “My message to all Angelenos is clear: We will stick together during this time and we will not turn our backs on one another — that’s what makes this the greatest city in the world.”Bass and other California officials have heavily criticized Trump over his use of the National Guard and a contingent of Marines, sent to purportedly protect federal property and personnel in Los Angeles after demonstrations over the immigration sweeps.An appeals court has ruled that Trump could continue to control the California National Guard, which would normally fall under Governor Gavin Newsom’s authority.The announcement comes a day after the Dodgers said they barred federal immigration agents from the team’s stadium parking lot as raids continued across America’s second-biggest city.The Department of Homeland Security later clarified that the agents at the venue were from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), not Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

After night fell on the outskirts of Los Angeles on Thursday, around 50 people clanged metal pots and blasted air horns outside a hotel in a noisy bedtime protest targeting US immigration agents.The “No Sleep For ICE” rally underscored growing anger at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a once obscure agency that has become the focal point of President Donald Trump’s migrant crackdown. “They terrorize our community the entire day. Why do they get a good night’s sleep?” said Nathanael Landaverde, 23, who banged a dismantled frying pan at the protest.Dramatic images have shown federal agents, often masked and sometimes armed with assault rifles, chasing down migrants and handcuffing them at courthouses, farms and on the streets.ICE officials have also detained some US citizens for allegedly intervening in arrests, including a mayoral candidate in New York this week. The heavy-handed approach has sparked fear among immigrants and infuriated many Americans, particularly in liberal cities such as Los Angeles, where large-scale street protests erupted this month over ICE raids.”If they don’t sleep they’re not gonna do their job effectively. They’re gonna get less people,” added Landaverde, as passing vehicles honked in apparent support for the late-night rally.It was not certain whether ICE agents were staying at the three-star hotel, but protest organizers claimed to have photo evidence.Dozens of people danced to a deafening cacophony as they waved signs reading “No rest for ICE” and “ICE out of LA” towards the hotel, where some guests peered through the curtains. One woman simply screamed into a megaphone. Another man wore earmuffs as he blasted distorted white noise through a speaker. “They’re ripping families apart, and it’s horrifying to watch in my community. They can’t sleep if they’re gonna do that here,” said Juliet Austin, 22, who was playing a small blue accordion.- ‘Secret police’ -Trump was elected to a second term in large part for his promise to deport thousands of migrants.But alongside their aggressive tactics, critics have denounced federal immigration agents for wearing face masks to hide their identities — a highly unusual but legal practice in US law enforcement.”At what point will we as a nation find ourselves with a secret police?” Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute think tank, wrote last month.  “For the Trump administration, turning masked raids into standard practice fits into a wider effort to dodge accountability for potentially illegal and unconstitutional actions,” he added.In California, lawmakers have introduced the “No Secret Police Act” that would restrict federal agents from wearing masks.Federal officials have rejected this criticism by claiming that agents wear masks to protect them from potential reprisals.Meanwhile, ICE has frequently boasted about its activities and posted pictures of detained migrants on social media. And it crucially still enjoys Trump’s support, who last weekend praised ICE agents’ “incredible strength, determination, and courage.”Still, anger over ICE looks unlikely to go away as long as immigration arrests continue, and protesters Thursday were adamant they would not back down.”I think it’s a modern Gestapo here in America,” said Austin, a dance teacher.”This city is not the one to mess with… We’re not gonna let it happen. We’re not tired,” she added.

A Venezuelan woman who went through hell to emigrate to America is going back to her troubled homeland, saying that living in fear is no life at all.Deisy — who declined to give her last name for safety concerns — will uproot her three children, sever all the links she made in America and brave the economic misery and other turmoil she fled in the first place.That’s how terrified she is, every day, all day, of being scooped up in one of the raids the Trump administration is carrying out in its relentless crackdown on people without papers.”What I thought was a dream has turned into a nightmare,” said Deisy. “The situation is total chaos. Who wants to be arrested in a country that is not theirs?”Trump was elected last year in large part on his pledge of a historic wave of deportations, and he is delivering.Any day now, transplanted Chicago resident Deisy, 37, and her kids will join the growing number of people deporting themselves to avoid falling into the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.In recent months ICE agents have stepped up arrests and the targets have included 252 Venezuelans who were sent handcuffed to a notorious prison in El Salvador without court hearings, on allegations they belong to a powerful Latino crime gang called Tren de Aragua.The detainees, their lawyers and advocacy groups insist the men have no ties to that organization.- Peace of mind ‘priceless’ -Deisy arrived in the United States in 2019 after an arduous trip from Panama, where she had emigrated six years earlier to find work.In her hometown of Maracay in the north of Venezuela, she could not make a living so she made the heartbreaking decision to leave her children with her mother and set out in search of a better life for all of them.After crossing the border with Mexico on foot, she turned herself in to the US authorities and was released with the obligation to appear later in immigration court.Her first taste of Chicago was grueling. She had little money, spoke no English and had no papers. But she stuck it out.In order to live and send money back home, she worked in construction — demolition, to be exact — and drove an Uber.Life back home seemed like a much worse alternative, as is the case for many migrants in the United States. The United Nations says nearly eight million people have left Venezuela in the past decade because of an economic meltdown in the once prosperous, oil-rich country, which suffers from acute shortages of food, medicine and other basic needs. And President Nicolas Maduro is accused of acting like a repressive leftist dictator who tolerates no dissent and steals elections.Now, what Deisy fears is not leaving but staying.Not long ago the immigration authorities picked up a work colleague whose status is the same as hers — living in the US with an asylum request pending.The Trump administration has pledged to revoke a special temporary status that Joe Biden’s administration granted to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans that shielded them from deportation.They include Deisy’s children, who joined her in 2022, and her husband, a Venezuelan she met in the United States.”We live in fear that we will be stopped on the street,” Deisy said. “We don’t want to be deported to a jail with criminals, where they treat us all as if we were members of Tren de Aragua.”Going home is not easy. Besides uprooting the family, Deisy has to pay for the trip and deal with messy paperwork. For instance, many Venezuelans have had their passports seized by US authorities.After considering several options she has decided to fly with a travel agency that specializes in people like her, Venezuelans going home. It is running 60 flights a month — 70 percent more than before Trump was inaugurated.”Life in Venezuela is rough, but my husband and I do not seek to be rich. And I think I prefer peace and quiet, the stability of being at home,” said Deisy. “For us, peace of mind is priceless.”

Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide pro-Palestinian campus protests, was released Friday from a federal detention center.Khalil, a legal permanent resident in the United States who is married to a US citizen and has a US-born son, has been in custody since March facing potential deportation.”This shouldn’t have taken three months,” Khalil, wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, told US media outside an immigration detention center in Jena, Louisiana hours after a federal judge ordered his release.”(President Donald) Trump and his administration, they chose the wrong person for this,” he said. “There’s no right person who should be detained for actually protesting a genocide.”The Department of Homeland Security criticized District Judge Michael Farbiarz’s ruling Friday as an example of how “out of control members of the judicial branch are undermining our national security.”Under the terms of his release, Khalil will not be allowed to leave the United States except for “self-deportation,” and faces restrictions on where he can travel within the country.Khalil’s wife, Michigan-born dentist Noor Abdalla, said her family could now “finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Maumoud is on his way home.””We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family and so many others the government is trying to silence for speaking out against Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians,” added Abdalla, who gave birth to the couple’s first child while her husband was in detention.- Visas revoked -Since his March 8 arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Khalil has become a symbol of Trump’s campaign to stifle pro-Palestinian student activism against the Gaza war, in the name of curbing anti-Semitism.At the time a graduate student at Columbia University in New York, Khalil was a prominent leader of nationwide campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.Following his arrest, US authorities transferred Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) from his home in New York to the detention center in Louisiana, pending deportation.Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked a law approved during the 1950s Red Scare that allows the United States to remove foreigners seen as adverse to US foreign policy.Rubio argues that US constitutional protections of free speech do not apply to foreigners and that he alone can make decisions without judicial review.Hundreds of students have seen their visas revoked, with some saying they were targeted for everything from writing opinion articles to minor arrest records.Farbiarz ruled last week that the government could not detain or deport Khalil based on Rubio’s assertions that his presence on US soil poses a national security threat.The government has also alleged as grounds to detain and deport Khalil that there were inaccuracies in his application for permanent residency.Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which is among the groups representing Khalil, welcomed the release order.”This is an important step in vindicating Mr Khalil’s rights as he continues to be unlawfully targeted by the federal government for his advocacy in support of Palestinian rights,” Sinha said.